Receipt OCR API for Developers
Pull structured data from receipt images with a single API call. Retrieve merchant details, line items, totals, taxes, and payment information delivered as clean JSON.
{
"status":"success",
"data": {
"merchant": {
"name":"Whole Foods Market",
"address":"123 Market St, San Francisco, CA",
"phone":"(415) 555-0123"
},
"transaction": {
"date":"2024-01-15",
"time":"14:32:00",
"total": 67.43,
"subtotal": 62.25,
"tax": 5.18,
"payment_method":"VISA ****4582"
},
"line_items": [
{"description":"Organic Bananas","qty": 2,"price": 3.98},
{"description":"Almond Milk","qty": 1,"price": 4.99}
]
}
}What Our Receipt OCR API Delivers
Convert unstructured receipt images into machine-readable data your application can actually work with. No more manual entry, no more guessing.
Merchant Identification
Automatically pull and normalize merchant names, addresses, phone numbers, and store identifiers from any receipt format. Our AI recognizes thousands of retailers and handles variations in how businesses present their information.
Line Item Extraction
Parse individual line items with descriptions, quantities, unit prices, and totals. Ideal for expense categorization, inventory tracking, or building detailed purchase histories for your users.
Financial Totals
Capture subtotals, taxes broken down by type when available, tips, discounts, and grand totals with high precision. Our API handles multiple tax jurisdictions and complex discount arrangements.
Date and Time Parsing
Extract transaction dates and times in standardized ISO 8601 format regardless of how they appear on the original receipt. No more wrestling with MM/DD/YYYY versus DD/MM/YYYY ambiguity.
Payment Method Detection
Recognize payment methods including credit cards with masked numbers, debit cards, cash, mobile payments, and gift cards. Useful for reconciliation and fraud detection workflows.
Multi-Currency Support
Process receipts from around the world with automatic currency detection. We support 150+ currencies and handle receipts in multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, German, and more.
Why Building Receipt OCR In-House Is the Wrong Move
We understand the appeal. You have a capable engineering team, and building your own receipt OCR system sounds like a manageable project. Here is what you are really taking on when you go down that road.
Months of Development Time
Training OCR models, building preprocessing pipelines, handling image quality issues, parsing diverse receipt formats. You are looking at 6-12 months before you have anything production-ready.
Endless Edge Cases
Crumpled receipts, faded thermal paper, handwritten additions, foreign languages, unusual fonts, multi-page receipts. Every edge case demands custom handling and more engineering hours.
Ongoing Maintenance Burden
Receipt formats evolve. New retailers appear constantly. Your models need retraining. Someone must maintain the infrastructure. This is not a build-once-and-forget undertaking.
Accuracy Takes Years to Achieve
We have processed millions of receipts to reach our current accuracy levels. Starting from scratch means your users endure a poor experience while you iterate toward acceptable performance.
The True Cost Comparison
- 2-3 ML engineers for 6+ months
- Infrastructure and GPU costs
- Training data acquisition
- Ongoing maintenance and support
- Opportunity cost of delayed features
- Integrate in hours, not months
- Pay only for what you use
- Always improving accuracy
- 24/7 support included
- Focus on your core product
How the Receipt OCR API Works
From image to structured data in three straightforward steps. Our API handles the complexity so you can concentrate on building great products.
Submit Your Receipt Image
Make a POST request to our API endpoint with your receipt image. We accept JPEG, PNG, PDF, and HEIC formats up to 20MB. Send the image as base64-encoded data or provide a URL where we can retrieve it.
curl -X POST \
https://api.payablesagent.ai/v1/receipts \
-H"Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"\
-H"Content-Type: application/json"\
-d '{"image_url":"https://..."}'We Process and Extract
Our AI-powered pipeline preprocesses the image for optimal quality, runs OCR to extract text, then applies machine learning to identify and structure the receipt data. The entire process takes under 2 seconds for most receipts.
Receive Structured JSON
Get back clean, structured JSON data ready to use immediately in your application. Every field is validated and normalized for consistency. Confidence scores are included so you know when to flag items for human review.
API Features Built for Production
Everything you need to integrate receipt OCR into your application and scale with confidence.
RESTful API
A clean, intuitive REST API built on industry best practices. Simple endpoints, predictable responses, and thorough error handling. Our API behaves the way you expect so integration goes smoothly without surprises.
- JSON request/response format
- Bearer token authentication
- Versioned endpoints for stability
- OpenAPI specification available
Webhook Notifications
For asynchronous workflows, configure webhooks to receive notifications when processing completes. Ideal for handling large volumes without blocking your application or managing long-lived connections.
- HMAC signature verification
- Automatic retry with exponential backoff
- Configurable event types
- Webhook logs in dashboard
Batch Processing
Process hundreds or thousands of receipts efficiently with our batch endpoint. Submit multiple images in a single request, track progress, and receive consolidated results. Ideal for backlog processing or migration projects.
- Up to 500 receipts per batch
- Progress tracking via status endpoint
- Partial results on failure
- Volume discounts available
Code Examples and API Response
See exactly what you will be working with. Clean requests, comprehensive responses.
POST Request Example
curl -X POST https://api.payablesagent.ai/v1/receipts \
-H"Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_api_key"\
-H"Content-Type: application/json"\
-d '{
"image":"base64_encoded_image_data...",
"options": {
"include_raw_text": true,
"include_confidence_scores": true,
"categorize_items": true
}
}'Request Options
image
Base64 encoded image data
image_url
URL to fetch image from
include_raw_text
Include raw OCR text in response
include_confidence_scores
Add confidence scores per field
categorize_items
Auto-categorize line items
webhook_url
URL for async result delivery
200 JSON Response
{
"id":"rcpt_1234567890abcdef",
"status":"success",
"processing_time_ms": 1247,
"data": {
"merchant": {
"name":"Whole Foods Market",
"normalized_name":"Whole Foods",
"address": {
"street":"399 4th Street",
"city":"San Francisco",
"state":"CA",
"postal_code":"94107",
"country":"US"
},
"phone":"+1 (415) 618-0066",
"category":"grocery",
"confidence": 0.98
},
"transaction": {
"date":"2024-01-15",
"time":"14:32:47",
"datetime_utc":"2024-01-15T22:32:47Z",
"receipt_number":"1847-2934-8273",
"register_id":"REG-04",
"cashier":"Maria S."
},
"totals": {
"subtotal": 62.25,
"tax": 5.18,
"tax_rate": 0.0833,
"tip": null,
"discount": 3.50,
"total": 63.93,
"currency":"USD",
"confidence": 0.99
},
"payment": {
"method":"credit_card",
"card_type":"VISA",
"last_four":"4582",
"auth_code":"847291"
},
"line_items": [
{
"description":"Organic Bananas",
"sku":"94011",
"quantity": 2.34,
"unit":"lb",
"unit_price": 0.79,
"total_price": 1.85,
"category":"produce",
"confidence": 0.97
},
{
"description":"365 Almond Milk Unsweetened",
"sku":"099482431235",
"quantity": 2,
"unit":"each",
"unit_price": 4.99,
"total_price": 9.98,
"category":"dairy_alternatives",
"confidence": 0.96
},
{
"description":"Organic Baby Spinach 5oz",
"quantity": 1,
"unit_price": 4.99,
"total_price": 4.99,
"category":"produce",
"confidence": 0.95
}
],
"taxes": [
{
"type":"state_sales_tax",
"rate": 0.0625,
"amount": 3.89
},
{
"type":"local_tax",
"rate": 0.0208,
"amount": 1.29
}
],
"discounts": [
{
"description":"Prime Member Savings",
"amount": 3.50
}
]
},
"metadata": {
"raw_text":"WHOLE FOODS MARKET\n399 4th Street...",
"image_quality_score": 0.89,
"language_detected":"en"
}
}Who Uses Receipt OCR APIs
From expense tracking apps to enterprise accounting systems, see how developers integrate receipt OCR to build better products.
Expense Management Apps
Let users photograph a receipt and have expense reports populate automatically. No more manual entry of merchant names, amounts, or dates. Your users reclaim hours every month, and your app becomes indispensable for expense tracking.
Fintech and Banking Apps
Enrich transaction data with receipt details. When a user makes a card purchase, let them attach the receipt to see exactly what they bought. Build spending insights, budgeting tools, and cash-back features powered by itemized data.
POS and Retail Systems
Process competitor receipts for price matching, digitize paper receipts for returns processing, or bring receipt data from multiple POS systems into a single dashboard. Our API handles the diversity of receipt formats with ease.
Accounting Software
Auto-import receipts into bookkeeping systems with proper GL coding.
Tax Preparation
Organize and extract tax-deductible purchases for easier filing.
Insurance Claims
Process receipts for reimbursement claims with itemized verification.
Market Research
Analyze consumer purchasing patterns from receipt panel data.
Need to process invoices as well as receipts?
Explore our Invoice Parsing SoftwareSimple, Transparent Pricing
Get started and scale as you grow. No hidden fees, no long-term contracts required.
Free
Ideal for testing and prototyping
- 100 receipts/month
- All data fields included
- Community support
Pro
For growing applications
- 5,000 receipts/month
- Webhooks and batch processing
- Priority email support
- 99.9% uptime SLA
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about integrating our Receipt OCR API.
What image formats does the Receipt OCR API support?
Our API accepts JPEG, PNG, PDF, TIFF, BMP, and HEIC image formats. For best results, we recommend JPEG or PNG with a resolution of at least 300 DPI. The maximum file size is 20MB for single images and 50MB for multi-page PDFs. We automatically detect and correct image orientation, so you do not need to worry about rotation.
How accurate is the receipt data extraction?
Our API achieves over 99.5% accuracy on high-quality receipt images for key fields like merchant name, total amount, and date. For line items, accuracy typically falls between 95-98% depending on receipt quality and format complexity. We include confidence scores with each extracted field so you can build appropriate review workflows for lower-confidence extractions. Accuracy continues to improve as we process more receipts and refine our models.
Can the API handle receipts in different languages and currencies?
Yes, our Receipt OCR API supports receipts in over 30 languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Language and currency are detected automatically. We support 150+ currencies and normalize all amounts to include the ISO currency code in our response. Receipts mixing multiple languages, common in tourist areas, are handled as well.
What is the typical API response time?
Most receipt images are processed in under 2 seconds. Straightforward receipts often complete in under 1 second, while longer multi-page receipts may take 3-5 seconds. For applications where response time is critical, we offer a low-latency tier with guaranteed sub-second processing for standard receipts. You can also use our webhook feature for asynchronous processing when you do not need an immediate response.
How do you handle data privacy and security?
Security is a top priority. All API communications are encrypted using TLS 1.3. Receipt images are processed in an isolated environment and kept in your account until you delete them. We are GDPR compliant. Enterprise: custom terms, contact our support team at [email protected].
Do you provide SDKs or client libraries?
Yes, we provide official SDKs for Python, Node.js, Ruby, PHP, Java, and .NET. All SDKs are open source and hosted on GitHub. They handle authentication, request formatting, error handling, and retry logic automatically. Code examples and quickstart guides for each language are available in our API documentation. If you are working in a language we do not have an SDK for, our REST API is straightforward to integrate directly.
Can I test the API before committing to a paid plan?
Absolutely. Our free tier includes 100 receipt extractions per month with no credit card required. This is perfect for evaluating the API during development and confirming it meets your accuracy requirements. All features are available on the free tier, including webhooks and batch processing. You can also request additional free credits for evaluation by reaching out to our sales team if you need to test at higher volumes before committing.
Ready to Add Receipt OCR to Your Application?
Get started in minutes with our free tier. No credit card required. Full API access from day one.
Questions? Visit the contact page or email us at [email protected]